Back when Natasha Howard was a supersub with the 2016-17 Minnesota Lynx, a critical part of two WNBA Finals runs and one championship, Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve didn’t like the question she’d often get about Howard: whether she would start for other teams.

“The problem with that question,” Reeve said last year in New York, “is that if I say yes, someone’s going to get her and start her.”

That prophecy came to pass this past offseason, when the salary cap-strapped Lynx dealt Howard to the Seattle Storm for a 2018 second-round pick and the right to swap 2019 first round picks.

Howard is now a fixture in the Seattle lineup, averaging just under 26 minutes per game with the Storm after averaging 11.7 with the Lynx last year. The results have been spectacular for player and team alike, with the Storm among the early pacesetters in the WNBA.